A serial killer who was found dead in a pool of blood at Broadmoor Hospital may not have wanted to die, an inquest jury has ruled.

Daniel Gonzalez, 27, of Woking, Surrey, was given two life sentences after he murdered four people in 2004.

Nurses at the Berkshire hospital found his body in his room in August 2007. The jury of three men and six women found there was not enough evidence to suggest Gonzalez wanted to die and returned an open verdict.

Gonzalez was found lifeless and with a makeshift blade by his side. Doctors found he had a deep cut to his arm and were unable to revive him.

A post-mortem examination showed he died from heart failure caused by massive blood loss.

Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford said: "The awful irony in Mr Gonzalez's case is that the more effective treatment he received, the more able he was to realise the seriousness of his offences, and that he would never be released."

Gonzalez was the first patient to die in the Windsor Ward, a unit for young people, in 12 years. He left no suicide note.

After the hearing, his grandmother, Brenda Cutmore, 72, of Sittingbourne, Kent, said: "In Broadmoor, Daniel was receiving the treatment, the medication and the therapy that he should have had access to years ago, before he committed the offences.

"He was feeling better than he had felt for a long time but, obviously, this brought to him a fuller realisation of what he had done and of the consequences."

"[But] because of the intensive care and continual observation at the hospital, he did not succeed," she said.

"We knew there had to come a time when Daniel's observation would be less rigorous and that this would be, for us and for him, for all concerned, a testing time.

"We have nothing but admiration for the doctors and staff at Broadmoor who treated Daniel."

Gonzalez's mother, Lesley Savage, 49, of Woking, added: "I wish there were more doctors like there are at Broadmoor on the frontlines so that people don't get to this stage in the first place."

Gonzalez was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1998.

In March 2009 an independent inquiry into his health care found he was "not treated successfully" but there was nothing to suggest his potential for violence was overlooked. His victims were Derek and Jean Robinson, 76 and 68, of Highgate, London; Kevin Molloy, 46, who was attacked in Tottenham, London; and Marie Harding, 73, who was murdered near Worthing, Sussex.

Two men who survived attacks by Gonzalez were Peter King, 61, who was knifed in Portsmouth, Hampshire; and Koumis Constantinou, 59, who was attacked in north London.